Recently, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced the launch of the World Health Organisation’s Health Alert on Facebook-owned popular social messaging platform, WhatsApp. 

The Health Alert chatbot is free to use and has been precisely designed to answer questions from the public about Coronavirus and to give prompt, reliable and official information 24 hours a day globally. 

The chatbot will also provide the latest news from the government decision-makers and will keep on updating the latest numbers and situation reports. 

It will provide official information on topics such as how to protect yourself from infection, travel advice, and debunking Coronavirus myths. Currently, the chatbot is launched only in English but it will be soon available in all six United Nations languages i.e. English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish within the coming weeks. 

Director-General of WHO, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “Digital technology gives us an unprecedented opportunity for vital health information to go viral and spread faster than the pandemic, helping us save lives and protect the vulnerable. We are proud to have partners like Facebook and WhatsApp, that are supporting us in reaching billions of people with important health information.”

The WHO Health Alert is the latest official NGO or government helpline to become available on WhatsApp, joining the Singapore Government, The Israel Ministry of Health, the South Africa Department of Health, and KOMINFO Indonesia.

Earlier this week WhatsApp, in partnership with the World Health Organisation, UNICEF, and UNDP, launched the WhatsApp Coronavirus Information Hub, to provide simple, actionable guidance for health workers, educators, community leaders, nonprofits, local governments and local businesses that rely on WhatsApp to communicate. The messaging platform has also announced a $1M grant to the International Fact-Checking Network to support fact-checking for the #CoronaVirusFacts Alliance, to report misinformation and fake news.

Click here to join the Health Alert by WHO.